Gum and Its

Effect on
Academics
By: Austin Squire

Problem
Does gum have an effect on a persons academics? For example;
creativity, focus, memory, efficiency, etc. If so is it a negative affect or
positive affect?

Hypothesis
If students chew gum during class lectures, doing worksheets, quizzes,
projects, and tests, then 80% of them will do better academically than
those who didnt chew gum and when they arent chewing gum,
because the gum takes all the distractions around you out of the way,
and helps them to focus, and remember, more on the task at hand and
on the chewing of the gum.

Results of the surveys (Question 1)

1.76% said yes that they chew gum in class
24% said no
Of the 24% that said no 79.17% didnt
answer any questions.

Cont.
1.Of the 24% that said no, 20.84% of that said that they think there
would be no effect. 8.34% said that there would be an effect. The
rest just didnt answer that part of the question

Question 2
2. I like to chew gum: 34.57%
Something to do: 1.24%
Superstitious: 1.24%
Nice Breath/Dont like the taste in their
mouth: 8.65%
Helps Focus Better: 27.17%
Relaxes: 11.11%
Stay Awake: 6.18%

Scientifically Proven
That Gum Helps You:
2.47%
Like to chew on
things/Like things in
their mouth: 3.71%
Work Efficiently:
1.24%
To Get Better
Grades: 1.24%

Question 3
Question 4
Faster: 64.11%
Slower: 3.85%
Neither: 25.65%
Dont Pay Attention:
6.42%

Yes: 49.33%
A Lot: 16.22%
A little: 35.13%
More than other times:
2.71%
25-50%: 10.82%
A few more questions:
2.71%
Basic questions: 2.71%

Question 4 Cont.
Question
5
No: 37.33%
I Dont Notice: 13.33%

Yes: 39.75%
Worksheets: 3.23%
No: 55.13%
Tests and Quizzes:
2.33%
Sometimes: 1.29%
Dont Notice: 3.85%

Question 6
Question 7
More: 64.48%

More: 50%

Less: 1.32%

Less: 18.43%

Neither: 27.64%

Neither: 25%

Dont Notice:
6.58%

Dont Notice:
1.32%

End Result
There were a total of 356 results from questions 3-7
Positive effects: 57.87%
Negative effects: 5.06%
No effect: 36.79%

What does this tell us?

These results tell us that the majority of the people I surveyed who
chew gum in class, say that gum helps them in someway in their
academics. And so far it proves my hypothesis wrong.

Results of Experiment #1
Test Scores of those who had
gum: Avg. Score: 75.14%

Test Scores of those who had

gum: Avg. Score: 79.94%

50.95%

98.12%

56.61%

92.50%

75.50%

94.34%

56.61%

81.14%

88.68%

100%

86.80%

47.17%

56.61%

67.93%

What does this tell us?

Well 80% of the 11 kids who had gum and took the test, 80% of them
with the best score, their average was 79.89%, which is just shy of the
total average of all of the 11 kids, who didnt have gum, which was
79.94%. So this experiment disproves my hypothesis.

Observations (Results of Day 1):

9 people present that day:
77.77% of you got gum from me (7/9):
Of that 77.77% of you about 28.58%of you were more focused than usual
(2/7).
About 71.43% of that number I noticed had no change in the amount of
focus they had towards their work (5/7).

22.22% of you didnt take gum from me (2/9):

50% was less focused than usual, and the other was just as focused as
usual.

Observations (Results of Day 2)

7 people were observed
71.43% had gum (5/7):
60% more focused than usual ().
40% are just as focused as usual ().

28.58% had no gum (2/7):

50% were less focused, and the other was more
focused than they usually were,

What does my observations tell us?

Well my observations kinda disproved my hypothesis. The reason why I
say kinda is because I could only tell people focus level and speed, I
couldnt tell whether they were more creative, or if they could
remember more about the subject matter because their is no way to
gauge that from looking. You can only notice differences in speed and
focus. So day 1 of observing there were more people who had focus
levels that were unchanged than usual, than those who were more
focused who had gum. So day one the gum had no change in focus
level. Day 2 however I noticed that the majority of the people I
observed were more focused than usual, but not to the extent that 80%
were more focused than when they have no gum.

What Could I Have Done Differently If I

Could Do This Study Again? And Why My
Hypothesis Was Proven Wrong?
My hypothesis was proven wrong because the data I got proved it
wrong. This is because I think my hypothesis was a bit too broad. What I
could have done differently was I couldve got like each persons
average test score when they took the test and compare it to their
results and see if 80% of those students who had gum improved, but
that stuff is confidential I would have to get their permission to do that.
Also I shouldve chose a different population to sample for surveys for
example; like college students, who arent as easily peer pressured into
answering the same way their friends were, and they could give me
more solid information. For my observations, I could have came up with
a small survey for at the end of each day and hand it out to each
person, who I gave gum to, asking questions that I couldnt answer
myself by just observing.